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24 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. CIRCUIT COURT DECISION IN COLLISION CASE. Among several decisions in lake collision cases recently handed down by the United States circuit court at Cincinnati (sixth circuit) is the final finding in the case of the American Steel Barge Co. (now Steel Corporation) against. James Dayid- son resulting from a collision between Davidson's barge Athens and the whaleback barge. No. 131 at the Sault in 1897. "The owners of the whaleback first libeled the Athens in the district 'court. Davidson denied the fault imputed' to the Athens and filed in the district court a cross-libel: charging the whaleback and the steamer in charge of her with the sole-responsibility for the collision. In the district court the' libel: was sustained and the cross-libel dismissed. Davidson appealed to the circuit court but that court also decided against him, sustaining the decree of the district court. The statement of the case and the opinion of the circuit court as delivered by Judge Severns is as follows: "A tow of vessels belonging to the American Steel Barge Co., consisting of the steamer John B. Trevor, the barge No. 133 and the barge No. 131, were going up the St. Mary's river-in . the order in which they are here named, without cargo, on a voyage from Cleveland to Duluth. On thé morning of July 2, 1897, at cbout 2:30. 0'clock, the tow was approaching the foot of the lock on the American side of the Sault Ste. Marie. Shortly prior to this, a tow of vessels belonging to Davidson, the appel- lant, consisting of the steamer Rappahannock and the barges Algeria and Athens, had been coming down in that order, from the opposite direction, loaded; and after getting through the lock and straightening up below, was moving down slowly," seek- ing a place in which to tie up until the weather should clear, A 'heavy mist or haze was on the surface of the water, though not 'so. dense as to prevent navigation if it' was conducted with due caution. But there was a place below, at the turn of the Lit- tle rapids, where navigation wes more difficult, and hence the pre- -caution of waiting for better light. There was no wind and the mentioned. The vessels of the tows were each about. 300 ft, long, the steamers a little longer, and the rear barges were on * 5 hawsers about 300 ft. long. Other vessels were in the water, and'. earn Ke Dust : .. the insurance companies is bad business at the best. the docks along down on the American side were pretty fully oc> ~~ LT : 1€ : ; * : «og It has fairly come of late to be necessary for the insurance cupied. -- "Ag 'the steamers approached each other, they agreed Dyas The steamers did soat © 4, proper distance from each other. Up to this point the location -- signal of one blast to, pass to the right. of the vessels of the two tows appears to have been free from fault. There is nothing in the evidence which induces us to doubt that the tows and: all the vessels thereof were at a safe dis: tance from each other and that there was special danger to be apprehended. In respect to what ensued, there is an irreconcila- ble conflict in the testimony. But fortunately the salient facts are easily enough seen, and we are relieved from the necessity re to harmonize the proof relating to the smaller de- tails. o "The substantial facts are that at about the time the barge No. 131 was passing the Rappahannock the tug L. B. Smith came along the port side of that barge, and lines being fastened' to her, ° brought her forward along the port side of No. 133, preparatory to their being put into the basin of the lock, and was proceeding to push both vessels to the starboard for proper position to enter the lock. The Athens was coming down on a slacken- ing tow line and sheered off toward the tug and the tow it was trying to assist. Seeing the Athens coming, the tug fell back; then No. 131 fell back also until she was behind No. 133, where she was struck a glancing blow on the port bow, by: the Athens which had not recovered herself. The stem of No. 131 was carried to starboard by the impact of the Athens and she was again hit amidships by the latter vessel as they passed. "1. There is no proof which we can think impeaches the movements of the Trevor and the vessels in that tow. The ut- most that can be said, is that some of the officers on those ves- sels did not know some conditions and events that with sharper observation they would have known. But nothing which they failed to observe contributed to the disaster. And it is fair to remember, that almost to the moment when the mischief hap- pened there was nothing to indicate danger or to stimulate unusual observation. : "2. The navigation of the vessels of the libellant being proper, and the irregular and damaging conduct of the Athens being clearly shown, it was incumbent upon her to make such ex- planation as should free her from liability. (The Wheeler, 24 C. C A. 353; the Ohio, 33 C. C. A..667; the Fontana, lately de- cided by this court.) 'This she has not done. In her. answer and in the cross-libel, it was charged that the speed of the Trevor was too great cnd that not only that vessel but those in her tow crowded too far over toward the American shore. But neither of these defenses is made out. "Tt would not be difficult, if it were open upon the pleadings to do so, to conclude that the shear of the Athens which brought the vessels into collision, was the result of her being left by her steamer without proper steerage way. 'There is much in the case to produce the impression that the Rappahannock was moy- ing very slowly and that her tow was, in consequence, somewhat collapsed. But the answer of the Athens insists that she. main- earnings of the lake-business-as a whole. hitches, but.the measure has too many friends to fail. -way for the barge canal to fail now. [Feb. 19, tained a proper position, though her headway was only sufficient for her. to swing very slowly, and her captain testifies that she . had sufficient headway. 'The testimony of the mate points to a different conclusion. The district court held that the Athens was at fault in not porting her helm in obedience to the signals for passing, and also in not employing a tug to assist her in her navi- gation. If she had sufficient headway, the reasonable conclusion 'is that her helm was not properly attended to. "No explanation of her erratic and dangerous course being "given by the Athens, sufficient to justify or excuse it, the decree of the district court holding her responsible for damages was 'right; and it is affirmed." INSURANCE LOSSES IN WOODEN HULLS. . Buffalo, Feb. 17.--'"'We.have been able to stummarize our sea- son's losses far enough now," said a lake insurance agent a day or two ago, "to make sure enough that the wooden hulls we have - covered have cost tis 125 per cent of the gross premiums, and that the loss is heavy enough to take all the profit out of the steel- hull business." 4 All of which makes an inference or two further into the case about as good as a certainty. It is not stated just how the steel- hull business stands by itself. It is said that it is not figured out yet as definitely as the wood-hull season has been and there does not appear to be quite the freedom to give information in this line as with the wooden vessels. 4 Well, it did not need this reminder to assure us that the days of the wooden vessel are over, or, that the steel one is here to stay, not only as a class, but as an individual, for when something gives out it is taken off and either re-made or replaced and the . "part is new again. -y how it has stood the years and there are no flies, that is, barna- cles ot other accumulations, on the outside of fresh water hulls. '"If'only the owners could be persuaded, or made, to stop loading night was not dark. except for the low-lying mist or haze just: --- their vessels so deep that when they pull heavily past the. foot There is no "boring" of a steel bottom to see of. Main street the dock idler could see no scandal of a deck fairly level with the water, there would be more certainty in the Selling anything to companies to make their money in lake insurance out of the cargo business, so that when that also comes out on the wrong site of the ledger, as it mostly did last season, it is loss to a certainty. The one good point in the lake insurance business appears to be, then, that the steel hulls did make some money and it may be ia- ferred that they will do it again on the average, unless there comes along another period of low water, when the bottom of the interlake passages will make a deeper hole in the profits than they have dene of late. There seems to be no prospect of ma- terial change in hull rates for the coming season. The under- writers do not command the situation enough to raise th>m and they are not likely to lower them. "T believe," said Maj. Symons the other day (whose prospec- tive departure already begins'to make him a sort of. sacred memory), "that the rail opposition to canal enlargement is about dead. : We saw nothing of it in Albany at the late hearing and I am prepared to see the leading roads put lines of boats of their own on the canal and operate them, just as they do on the lakes now." There are not a few sceptics here yet, as regards the passage of the canal enlargement bill, and they are bound to make us feel uncomfortable till it goes through. "No faith in it," has killed more good people or rendered them useless, than it has measures, but it is a decidedly uncomfortable weapon for all that, it is walk- ing backwards, with your face to the enemy, and trying to set up a reputation for a prophet if the thing goes one way and being in place to fall in face foremost if it goes the other. It takes a farmer, though, to tell the commercial interests of the country why there is no health in the canal:movement. With the railroads fairly swamped by the freight that is pouring in on them, with them more responsible by a long way for the coal shortage this winter than the mines were, with New York and Buffalo eager to set up and pay for an improvement that will double the State farmer's markets for him, he is engaged in main- taining that the whole: movement is a political grab, that it is not needed, for the canal is not used up to capacity, and that the National government is the one to look after it anyhow: I do not believe there is a single interest in Buffalo that is at work for canal enlargement for its own direct benefit. When the people come to vote on it this will hardly be the casé, for labor will stand for such an improvement almost to a man, which is one reason why it cannot be beaten at the polls, but let any- one go to a Buffalo canal meeting and point out a man who ex- pects to make money out of the new canal. Unless there is en occasional boatman there, and they are taking no particular part in the movement, the meeting will be fotind to represent com- merce and practically nothing else. Meanwhile we look for the new canal. 'There will be some 1 : There are too many people convinced of its need who used to see the other JoHN CHAMBERLIN.'